Smartphone apps dial up privacy worries

Thu, 02/16/2012 - 04:00 EDT - LA Times

Undisclosed gathering of smartphone users' address book data by Twitter and other social networking companies brings heightened scrutiny by privacy advocates and lawmakers.A new furor has erupted over digital privacy concerns following disclosures that Twitter Inc. and other social networking companies are reaching into people's smartphones and retrieving their personal contact information without getting explicit permission.

A couple of social media apps are now more popular in the U.S. than several apps that come pre-installed on iOS and Android smartphones. Here's a look at Nielsen data tracking app audiences on iOS and Android smartphones (ages 18 and over) in the U.S., between January and October 2013.

However, excessive use of social networking sites can be disruptive to the day-to-day running of a business and it makes sense to set some ground rules if you are concerned that your employees are spending too much of their working day networking online.
1. Decide what you think is ‘acceptable use’ of the internet and create a policy to reflect this

Google Maps was the most popular smartphone app last quarter, used by 54% of smartphone users, followed by Facebook (44%), YouTube (35%), and Google+ (30%). The findings come from a GlobalWebIndex survey of 19,000 smartphone users worldwide last quarter. Many new Android devices come with Google apps pre-installed, and that helps explain their popularity.